Sunday, June 30, 2013

...and a delicious traditional breakfast in the comfortable family-run hotel outside the country town where I am staying. Mass in the local church: reverent liturgy beneath glorious glowing stained glass, a number of (mostly Indian) young families, an excellent sermon about Saints Peter and Paul and the places in Rome associated with them... alas, a choir, sitting up near the front, who chatted to one another before, during, and after the Mass, sang some truly terrible songs to a piano. Since they seemed uninterested in the Mass - none knelt, as far as I could see, during the Canon although this may have been because several of them were quite elderly - it would surely have been better if they had been placed in the choir gallery at the back of the church? And, if some one could play an organ, and some proper hymns were announced, and if we could be allowed to sing the parts of the Mass as Vatican II urges...then the music would match the liturgy and good things would flow...

There really is no excuse for getting a group to shriek "When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?" during Mass. It has a value as a singalong with a cheery message but it has no - absolutely no - role in the liturgy at all.

The priest was v. kind and let me use the parish computer to tackle a couple of important items. Then I enjoyed a glass of cold wine in a local pub before catching the coach back to London. A long slow ride through stacked traffic - great crowds had been to the seaside over the weekend. The lush green fields and mellow stone cottages looked so beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

...and warm sunshine after rain and chill, Visiting a beloved elderly relation...a seaside town, lunch in the park just off the High Street, with children having a Story Hour and flowers in neat rows in the ornamental flower-beds. In the afternoon a Garden Fete with a dog show and scones-with-jam-and-cream. Everything apparently traditonal. But somehow, there's an ache at the heart of it. There's a feeling of things going wrong. In the long warm evening, shouting and anger, obcenities, young people mooching about looking sullen. A lack of the laughter that used to be around. I think it's simply there is so much family break-up, so many youg people not really feeling they belong in a settled home and with clear values, so things feel brittle... and now with the imposition of a new law forcing everyone to pretend that two men can marry, and restrictions on what we are allowed to say about it...the old Britain has gone, and with it the good humour and tolerance that made us what we were.

Monday, June 24, 2013

...and some tiredness, but it was all well worth it...the 2013 Martyrs' Walk went well. I wrote a piece for my EWTN beforehand, which sets the scene: you can read it here...

As always, we met near the Old Bailey - site of Newgate prison, where many Catholic martyrs were held in the days when the Catholic faith was banned in Britain - and started with prayers and a short introductory talk as we gathered in the churchyard of St Sepulchre's.

The saga of our English Martyrs begins, of course, with Henry VII, who wanted to ensure that his Tudor dynasty flourished. Emphasising his family's right to the throne, and stressing their Welsh origins, he named his first-born son Arthur, after Britain's famed "once-and-future-king" (Knights of the Round Table, Camelot etc). And in what seemed a very wise move, he also arranged for young Arthur to marry a Spanish Princess, Catherine of Aragon, and the wedding was duly celebrated in London. But as both Catherine and Arthur were very young, they were not yet ready to live together as man and wife, so she remained in London, and he went back to Wales...where, sadly, he became ill just a few weeks later, and died. It must have been a frightening and lonely time for the teenage Catherine, effectively alone in a foreign city. There were various plans for her to be married to other European princes...but eventually her fate was to be that she married Henry VII's next son, who came to the throne of England as Henry VIII.

Well, the rest is rather well known...Henry VIII, the fine-looking, well-educated young man, a sportsman, a linguist, a man who loved music and was good company, gave way over the years to the figure that has become fixed in history: the bloated, arrogant cruel ruler whose chief fame down the centuries has been the fact that he had six wives.

"Divorced, beheaded, died/ Divorced, beheaded survived" is how schoolchildren are taught to remember the wives today. And Henry, an ardent supporter of the Latin Mass to the end of his days, and passionately and angrily supportive of all traditional Catholic doctrines, wanted to enjoy all these on his own terms. He took full advantage of the Medieval Church/State entanglement to announce himself as "Head of the Church of England", breaking with the successor of St Peter in Rome. Many could not see that this really mattered - monarchs and Popes had been at loggerheads before - and/or did not really want to see. Thomas More, the Chancellor of England, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester not only saw the importance of the issues involved, but went to their deaths because they would not follow the king. Unity with Peter's successor, and full commitment to the unchangeable teaching of the Church on marriage - one man, one woman, for life - were the issues at stake. More and Fisher gave their lives in defence of these.

And so to the Martyrs' walk. We thought of Fisher and More, and of the Catholic Martyrs that followed them in the reign of Elizabeth I, and in our prayers we recalled all who died in the turbulent years of the Reformation in our country, including those burned at the stake in Mary's reign. We prayed for religious freedom in our country, and for courage to be given to all Christians in the years ahead.

The Martyrs' Walk follows the tradition established by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, with the Tyburn Walk that began in the first years of the 20th century. It is not now possible to walk down Oxford Street - vast crowds jamming the pavements, heavy traffic, roadworks - so after our final stop for prayer at St Patrick's, Soho, we split into smaller groups to make our way to Tyburn. Here, we gathered at the site of the old gallows to pray, and then went to the Convent for Benediction, and for some refreshments provided by the good sisters.

Many thanks to Father Robert Nicoletti, MJ, our chaplain for the day, and to Bryan and Jayne Lock who take responsibility for much of the admin.

NEXT CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK: Tuesday July 2nd, meet at 3pm on the steps of Westminster Cathedral for a tour of the Cathedral, inside and out. No need to book - just turn up!

And, for serious walkers - join us for the John Paul II Walk for the New Evangelisation. details here

Sunday, June 23, 2013

...and we lifted it high as we walked through the Norfolk meadows and lanes, along the old railway track that marks the Holy Mile at Walsingham. This was the annual pilgrimage of the Ordinariate of OLW, with people arriving from across Britain, on a day of sunshine and surging skies and glorious breezes.

We had set off from London at an early hour, crossing Tower Bridge in traffic-free splendour, Fr Chris leading us in the Angelus as we headed eastwards. At Walsingham, the big Barn Church was filled to capacity, and - as always at Ordinariate events - the hymns were a glorious and rousing sound. There was a solemn feel missing from previous years: Mgr Keith Newton preached about Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, it being their Feast day. They died giving witness to God's law on marriage, because they would not bow to the insistence of a ruler intent on imposing his own line on matrimony. They died witnessing to Christian marriage and to the unity and freedom of the Church...

Picnic lunches at tables and benches on the lawns around the shrine...it's all rather picturesque, with children running about, and friends glad to meet up, and cassocked priests with their flocks...

Then, led by a great processional Cross, we set off down the Holy Mile...the breezes sent great rippling waves through the tall grass and green corn, and rustled the silky spinach-like tops of the fields of sugar beet... the bird-cries and baa-ing of sheep were our only rivals as we said the Rosary, the voices going back and forth. Down into the village and the Anglican shrine, where we were welcomed, and where we prayed and were blessed with water from the well...

"Bring your intentions for prayer, and take them to Our Lady", we'd been told, and I took a good many: there is a box at the Slipper Chapel where you write your prayer-requests on slips of paper and drop them in. I had also taken along my final essay for my Degree course, intending to read it through on the long journey home...I took it with me as I prayed, and laid it for a moment before Our Lady's statue. Later, on arrival at the Anglican shrine, the two words carved into the stone altar stood out starkly: the topic of my essay.

Tea - with scones and jam and cream - and then home in the coach: I sat with a fellow LOGS member and we planned and talked: our forthcoming Children's Vespers, Autumn activities, a children's trip to Walsingham next year? And more...

Later, at home, Jamie found "Lift High the Cross" on the internet and we played it... dealt with some emails, tackled some domestic things, checked and -rechecked my essay and then went out late to post it. Done.

Friday, June 21, 2013

...the Ordinariate. A good combination. EWTN's Raymond Arroyo spoke last night at the Ordinariate parish, Precious Blood church at London Bridge. A lively and amusing talk, which went down well. He has all the patter. An audience of people who love EWTN - people want to tell personal stories about why/how/when they watch it. Some one asked about the daily Mass that is broadcast on EWTN and why Arroyo wasn't in the congregation...as I suspected, there are watchers who look obsessively for people whose faces they recognise. Arroyo explained that he doesn't live in Alabama but works from a studio in Washington or elsewhere. EWTN tries to avoid showing too much of the congregation in the televised Mass - at one stage, when the nuns were still using the old convent and so were shown at daily Mass, people used to write in when their favourite sister seemed to appear downcast, or unwell, or unusually cheerful, or whatever...

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Children, and especially teenagers, long to belong - they need the peer group, the comradeship, the sense of adventure as they discover the world together. And never more than now, when the world is a lonely place, and that sense of adolescent angst, of wondering where-I-fit-in which can so easily descend into self-massaging egoism and an obsessive belief in one's own importance and thence into misery and self-destruction.

They need a group that brings them together for great and good things, to meet God, to know about love and service of neighbour, to seek out ways of helping others daily. They need a sense of belonging not just to one another, but to a loving Creator and to a tradition and heritage that has given them a home-base, a nation, a set of values that they did not invent for themselves.

And so a once splendid organisation, the Girl Guides, has opted to do the opposite. In place of lifting up girls' hearts and minds to the great, the true, and the beautiful, to service beyond self and to an understanding of the grand and good things they could do in the world, the organisation has decided to enforce a rule that there is no absolute truth, that a promise cannot be made to God, and that the only measure of anything is "me, Me ME". A new promise is to be imposed, banning any reference to God and instead insisting that the children swear to be true only to themselves and their beliefs - including, presumably, belief in anything at all - and for good measure there is to be no notion of country either, as the children must only be committed to "my community".

I'm only too familiar with the processes that brought this about - the awkward committee meetings at which everyone tries to sound open and friendly and everything seems to be negotiable, so any specific commitment to a previous certainty looks harsh and unhelpful...the blandness with its faint undertones of boredom...the genuine desire to update a good project, combined with the lack of faith in the project's deepest roots. Oh, dear. Why couldn't GirlGuiding have got a grip and recognised that belief in God is the one great certainty of the 21st century?

It won't work. A few years back, the same organisation announced that it was dropping the word "Girl" from its title because it seemed outdated. I well remember this, because I was in correspondence with them at the time about various daft ideas they were pushing forward, and a letter from HQ passionately defended the banning of the word "Girl". Then, suddenly but without fuss, it was back again and is now so much part of the formal title that they've merged the two words together Girlguiding to form a trendy logo/slogan/marketing device.

Allow God back in, ladies, and get real. Be part of tomorrow, not part of the collapse.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

...organised by the FAITH Movement and held at St Patrick's, Soho Square. Superb speakers: Canon Luiz Ruscillo, Bishop Phillip Egan, and George Weigel. The whole day was full of inspiration and encouragement on the theme of the New Evangelisation. Weigel is an excellent speaker, by turns amusing, interesting, and challenging - and he gave us a fine sweep of Church history, putting the Second Vatican Council in its full perspective and offering a practical vision for the way ahead, centred on a Catholicism which is rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Bishop Philip gave us a most inspiring address, emphasising prayer at the core of the New Evangelisation. And Fr Luiz opened the day with a sparkling look at the Church today, the sober realities, and the great possibilities for the future. All this plus a beautiful Mass, a time of Adoration, Benediction, opportunities for confession...and St Patrick's is in a corner of London with lots of history, so we had a short History Walk too...

Sunday, June 16, 2013

...over a pub lunch after Mass...the future of Britain, and Islam. Conversions to Islam. In my experience of talking to young girls who convert, obviously the immediate cause is an Islamic boyfriend. Usually the girl is a formal but lapsed Catholic. She has been given just sufficient religion (eg in a nominally Catholic school) to give her a vague idea of God and an interest in the things of God, but insufficient to enable her to have a personal relationship with Christ, let alone any desire for the sacraments. So the idea of praying five times a day and adopting a dress code, and all that, seems v. romantic and exciting, especially if it causes dismay at home...

We need to pray about this, and our own commitment to Christ and the Church is at the core of what the future holds. We are called to be missionaries, to be witnesses, to evangelise...

Saturday, June 15, 2013

...a booklet giving the text of a lecture by Rt Rev Graham Leonard, former Anglican Bishop of London, telling of his spiritual journey. He served for 45 years - with great distinction, although he does not mention that - as an Anglican, and following the events of 1992 and the C of E Synod's vote to create women priests, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church and was ordained. His account is touching and interesting in lots of ways...but it's huge relevance for today lies in the fact that the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was forged out of the discussions that he and others held back in the early 1990s with Cardinal Basil Hume and others. The Cardinal had asked them what elements of their Anglican heritage they could bring.. this was also discussed with .Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome... and the result, some two decades later, was Anglicanorum Coetibus. And now we have the Ordinariate...

...the ghastly things that are going to happen over the next years, as the reality of the destruction of marriage finds its way, into the everyday reality of a muddled and collapsing society. Already, we are all too uncomfortably aware of the miserable attempts by fatherless boys to find some relief and identity in brutality and gang-culture. We are conscious of the social chaos of children who lack identity, a family structure, a knowledge of who they are, commitment. We know, with a growing sense of horror, that it is going to be extremely difficult to care for people as they get old and frail, with family structures disintegrating.

Read this - be warned that you need a strong stomach - on the frightening things that are happening in the world of "sperm selling". Read here to find out more about the reality of the plight of the fatherless.

Trendy clichés and gooey fashionable attitudes have masked a descent into a dreadful and cruel situation. Over the next years, Christian charity will be a beacon of hope - living it, sharing it, teaching it, will require courage and generosity. Ready?

Friday, June 14, 2013

...to London Bridge. Raymond Arroyo, presenter at EWTN, will be speaking at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, this coming week, June 20th, 6.30pm.Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments. More info here...

Yesterday evening, there was a beautiful Ordinariate Evensong held at Brompton Oratory...the first time that Evensong in the Anglican rite has been sung there. Afterwards, a reception was held and writer Charles Moore spoke: he mentioned the forthcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Dr Welby...I think it is a nice piece of Providence that the two events came together like this, as it hadn't been planned...

There are pitfalls and huge possibilities for awkwardness ahead, but we need to be courteous and friendly, and cherish all possible goodwill.

I am not impressed by attempts to suggest that official encounters emphasising goodwill and politeness between Anglicans and Catholics are wrong or silly. On the contrary, in this often ugly world, it's simply heartening to see some decent friendship. Let's keep on...

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

...the Martyrs' Walk takes place in London. This is in a long tradition, following the route to Tyburn and honouring the memory of the English Martyrs. Come and pray for our poor country. Meet 1.30pm at St Sepulchre's church, near the Old Bailey. Nearest tube: St Paul's. We will walk right through London, stopping to pray at the Church of SS Anselm and Cecilia in Holborn, at St Giles-in-the-Fields (Anglican - where we are always made most welcome) and St Patrick's, Soho. Things finish with Benediction and then Tea at Tyburn.

Three sets of proofs to correct (new books coming out in August). Lecture tour coming up in Australia. And I'm speaking at the EWTN Family Festival in Alabama (August 17th-18th) so there will be a lot of travelling this summer...

At the weekend, while at Maryvale, I met a lady who has been accepted as a postulant in the Carmelites, and all was going well...but she has a problem. She owns a small house on the outskirts of Birmingham and has been unable to sell it. She is not allowed, under Church law, to enter a religious order until she has sorted out obligations of this sort. The house is a modest one, and she needs to sell it in order to pay off the mortgage and be free to follow her call.

Can you help? The convent has released her until the sale goes through. She is working as a supply teacher...and is desperate for help in getting this small house sold! Any offers of help/advice would be appreciated. Send a COMMENT to this Blog marking it "Not for publication" and INCLUDING IN IT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS so that I can contact you.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

...I took a group of school pupils from a big London comprehensive school round Westminster Cathedral today. They were delightful, well behaved and friendly, and looked nice in their blue blazers. They don't know much history, but get eager and interested once you start to explain it...the key is to get them to answer up and repeat things. "Christ was born in...?" and they are too shy to answer so you repeat the statement and then one shyly mumbles "Jerusalem?" and you say "Not quite..." and you tell them "Bethlehem" and there's a vague murmur of "Oh, yeah...of course" and so you then start again "Christ was born in...?" and you get a chorus of the right answer...and so it goes on. They knew the name of the first Pope - a big chorus of "Peter" and they eagerly searched for the name of Pope Benedict on the big plaque listing all of them...and they knew about him and about Pope John Paul, and of course about Pope Francis...They didn't know about Pope Gregory and St Augustine and "Non angli sed angeli" but they liked the story and were able to repeat it back to me in due course. Odd gaps in children's knowledge, though...when I talked about St Paul one of them asked what a shipwreck was.

The main interest arose as we stood at the foot of the nave and I commented that it would be a superb aisle to walk up as a bride...one commented thoughtfully that you'd need a long hymn because the walk would be a long one, another asked how much a wedding like that might cost...(I noted that the cathedral would be free, but it would right to make a donation...and then afterwards, giving champagne and cake to all those people would cost a bit...best to start talking to her dad about it now, so as to get saving...)

And then, after a quick coffee-and-emails break in a nearby café, a change of mood. I hurried to London Bridge. Here, a couple of us had agreed to meet at Precious Blood Church to do a Rosary Walk. We were doing it all last summer, a little group of women quietly walking around the parish, praying the Rosary. This evening, a Rosary in thanksgiving for many blessings received...

There is so much history in The Borough, along this little bit of the Thames. Borough High Street and Redcross Way... the little garden established by Octavia Hill with its rush-pond and little bridge... Guy's Hospital chapel and a lady came in to pray, and asked if we had any matches as she wanted to light a candle...

We are having a Parish History Walk on July 8th as part of the Patronal Festival. Watch this blog for more on that...

Sunday, June 09, 2013

...the conclusion of our Evangelisation course with a party on Saturday evening, wine and snacks and cake and a general spirit of unity and merriment. There is a Maryvale Mythology that binds together all who have ever studied here, and cannot really be conveyed except by a general reference to the culture of the place...

This weekend had a special mood of its own, set against the background of the horrible legislation now going through Parliament, and the all too obvious schemes by campaigners dedicated to wrecking any public teaching or affirmation of Christian sexual morality. There was serious, thoughtful discussion, some inspirational teaching, beautiful moments in the chapel, and a great sense of growing unity and friendship among members of the group...

Spent Friday afternoon packing up prizes for the children taking part in the Schools Project run by the Ladies Ordinariate Group at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge. This was great fun: coffee brewed, sandwiches shared, and much agreeable talk and laughter as we worked. The LOGS group contacted all the Church of England and Catholic primary schools in Greater London - that's a large number, stretching from Barnet in the North down to Kent in the south - and invited the children to take part in a handwriting and artwork venture. They were given some Psalms to read, and were to choose one, and copy out some lines they particularly liked - minimum of 4 lines, max. of 6 - and illustrate them any way they liked. Then in one paragraph, to give reasons for their choice.

We received some absolutely beautiful work - wonderful illustrations of deer by running streams, and the Lord being a shepherd, and a cup overflowing, and so on and so on...and the children's reasons for choosing particular lines were touching and often truly inspiring. Reading through the entries was a big team effort and we loved it...and sending out prizes and arranging for a display of the children's work has been a most enjoyable exercise.

We were still busy and enjoying ourselves when Fr Chris came through and noted that it was 6 pm...and we all had homes and families and evening commitments...I was catching a late train to Maryvale from Marylebone...

On the train I relaxed with another thoroughly enjoyable project, embroidering a sampler to mark the birth of a new great-niece. The arrival of this baby has given much joy...

Maryvale, and the welcome that awaits as soon as you go through the gates and up the path beneath the arching trees. The grounds look particularly lovely this weekend because there is to be the annual Mass and Procession honouring the feast of the Sacred Heart...as the weekend progressed, the preparations gathered pace, with a great outdoor church created in front of the pillars and verandah at the side of the house where a lovely statue of Mary stands in front of a large flower-bed in the shape of a Cross, with the Stations alongside. Great stacks of flowers, chairs arranged in row after row stretching back towards the main lawn...and while we were at lectures tackling Evangelisation and discussing ways of doing Confirmation preparation or youth work or talking about the problems and challenges and opportunities, with the Scriptures and the Catechism, Maryvale was readying itself to welcome large crowds for what is evidently a major local event...

Thursday, June 06, 2013

...is currently on display in Westminster Abbey, in a side chapel near the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior , close to the great west door. A thick band of blood-red Flanders poppies surrounds the tomb, and people gather round, falling silent as they read the inscription. Nearby the monuments include one to Lord Shaftesbury, whose great work for the poor including freeing children from work in mines and factories, and one to Winston Churchill. Then as you turn your gaze to the sanctuary there are gleams of gold, and above you the great arches soar...all this in just a few short minutes taken from a busy morning, and the images linger in the mind throughout the day. We lunched in a pub near St James' Park and then made our good-byes - my sister will shortly be returning to New Zealand after this family visit - and I went on to Charing Cross, and thence to Pembury.

Pembury? It's a village in Kent, reached via a train journey through countryside all green and lush in June sunshine after months and months of rain. In Pembury Fr Ed Tomlinson of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham ministers to a growing flock...the church of St Anselm operates in a hall which functions as a nursery during the week and so has to be transformed for worship, with much unpacking of altar and arranging of chairs and collecting of hassocks etc from cupboards. Hassocks...now there's Anglican patrimony for you. "Couldn't you have proper tapestry hassocks, done by the ladies-of-the-parish?" I asked. Of course, came the cheery reply, and here's-one-that's-been-done-already, and he showed a fine piece of work commemorating the Queen's diamond jubilee. I badly want to help: I'm currently just finishing a small cross-stitch sampler for a new baby ( enchanting new great-niece arrived just recently) but when that's done, I hope the parish follows up on the hassocks plan and invites volunteers...

Mass, once the hall was transformed into a church. Then I gave my talk on saints - the latest in a series of talks organised by Fr Ed for the Year of Faith. A good attendance, and a good spirit among them all. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a sign of hope in sad and difficult times for our country. As we sat talking later, we looked at reports and analyses of the tragic House of Lords vote to impose a redefinition of marriage on us all. It's grim: several Anglican bishops actually abstained, apparently unable to bring themselves to oppose this ghastly thing. The Catholic bishops have issued a statement emphasising opposition and saying they will fight for the rights of conscience etc.

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

...the Coronation, with all its rich Christian symbolism. And today Parliament voted to impose a new law stating that two men can marry. A tragic day, a sense of something ending.

London was beautiful today - the tide was far out along the Thames, revealing wide beaches, and while boats chugged past out in the deeper water, people on the shore sipped drinks and chatted and packed out the bars and restaurants...

I have been busy with family things all week, and this afternoon we went to The Globe, and stood in the Yard to enjoy an absolutely stunning presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Act 1, where Lysander is arguing with Demetrius about who should marry Hermia, he notes that Demetrius seems to get on very well with Hermia's father Aegeus, so why doesn't he marry him instead? When Shakespeare wrote that, he could never have imagined...

Sunday, June 02, 2013

...the Church around the world today prayed in unity before the Blessed Sacrament. He had organised it for 5pm, Rome time, and for us in Britain that meant 4pm - an ideal time, just completing a Sunday afternoon...

I went to morning Mass at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge - it was the parish First Communion Mass and a vast congregation, standing-room only. There were a lot of friends-and-neighbours of the First Communicants, and a number were all too obviously unfamiliar with being in church: a good deal of talking and Father made a plea for silence before Mass began. He preached extremely well - an easy, informal style, standing at the sanctuary steps... over the high altar are the words "Christus dilexit nos et lavit nos in sanguine suo" and he asked for help to translate it. A child volunteered: the word "Christus" is obviously a fairly easy start...and together they did it, and as they did so, the congregation was hooked...

The children behaved impeccably, the girls in white dresses and the boys in jackets-and-ties...the Mass ended with a great Blessed Sacrament procession surging out into the streets - we went under the big railway viaduct, and along Borough High Street, past the War Memorial and down Union Street and so finally back to the church for Benediction... the girls strewed flowers before the Blessed Sacrament, the boys formed an honour guard, there was the usual muddle with singing as it's impossible to keep a straggly crowd like that in unison, and several people said that next year we should have a brass band! Then, after Tantum Ergo and a traditional Benediction, a terrific squash of people in the Parish Room where there was not only a celebration cake and lots of snacks, but great platefuls of rice and chicken (this is a v. African and West Indian parish) and wine...

Then, later, after the clearing-up (including removal of some chewing-gum from the carpet, ugh)...the quiet church, and the Blessed Sacrament, and a reminder that we were gathering there to pray in union with Pope Francis and the worldwide church: in America it was 11 in the morning, in Japan it was already night...

Then I went on to St Patrick's, Soho Square, because I had a longstanding commitment to go to the Procession there, too. I always love this Procession, because the Blessed Sacrament is taken right through Soho, and we give out little gifts of Miraculous Medals wrapped in Scripture verses. There are some wonderful encounters. "What is this? What is that parade about?" When I explain about the Blessed Sacrament, most people vaguely understand. One said "I'm a Catholic - but we don't have this in Ireland" (they do, they do, but evidently not enough, and not in his parish). Several others also said "I'm a Catholic..." but appeared unfamiliar with the idea of the Blessed Sacrament... light sort of dawning as I mentioned the Mass, and Holy Communion...

This Procession - a very large one, preceded by an International Mass in St Patrick's - always finishes with a grand Benediction in the churchyard of St-Giles-in-the-Fields, a nice ecumenical gesture. The Rector and his team made us all most welcome, and we all chatted agreeably over wine and fruit juices in the evening sunshine...

And then finally home. That was a lot of procession and singing for one Sunday. But I loved it.

Saturday, June 01, 2013

...looking ahead to the summer, don't forget to book in for the JOHN PAUL WALK to Walsingham, starts August 7th with a Mass in the ancient abbey at Bury St Edmunds. It's organised by the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph: find out more from their website here.

...and Auntie is planning her summer activities - or rather, her winter ones, because part of August will be spent Down Under, where it will be wintertime.

First, however, to the USA, to take part in EWTN's Family Celebration, and then on to Australia, for a rather rusharound lecture tour...I have three new books coming out, two are books of saints for children, and one is about Brigettine nuns and helping to save Jewish people in wartime Rome. An exploration of this tragic chapter of history reveals some poignant stories...and restores the truth about the maligned Pius XII, who actually saved a huge number of lives. Along with him - literally, working alongside, and making the necessary visits to places to arrange hiding-places etc,, often in dangerous conditions - was the young Mgr Montini, better known to history as Paul VI. Both of these men have been the object of sneers and abuse, and it is important to set out the truth and give honour where it is due.

Working on the book about the Brigettine nuns has been difficult: by definition, hiding people secretly in wartime is not something that involves written records or publicity...but it was exciting once I got some breakthroughs, and now the thing has been written, and in a couple of months I will hold the book in my hands.

...in Sussex, on a perfect May evening in the church of Our Lady Queen of Peace in the Adur Valley, an ordination, and a packed church singing "Veni, veni Sancte Spiritus..."

It was all a bonus for me, as I had arranged to be with friends who organise the Catholic History Walks: we meet from time to time at their home in Sussex, to plan the next set of walks, check on how the whole venture is going, etc. We generally start with evening Mass in their local church, then enjoy a family supper and talk. But this time Jayne telephoned to say there was an ordination in their parish and asked if I'd like to go...

It was glorious. AS the long stream of clergy processed in, to the sound of our singing, bells were pealing out across the village, as the local Anglican church was also having an ordination that evening (and, pleasingly, mutual prayers were offered amid general goodwill: a nice gesture), and evening sunshine streamed in through the church windows. The new deacon, Stephen Sharpe, was ordained by the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton...it is always so moving when the ordinand prostrates himself before the altar and the saints are invoked in chanted prayer. Here in this corner of Sussex, St Cuthman ("The boy with the cart")was invoked along with the other saints - including Blessed John Paul, which gave a sense of the great sweep of time and history...

The Bishop was wearing new vestments - very beautiful, richly embroidered - and the new deacon was invested with a new dalmatic of the same design, the stiff material being unfolded as the garment was put over his head. The prayers of ordination are magnificent, and there was a sense of a new surge of strength coming to the Church.

This is a good parish: lots of families - children's names on a notice-board announcing First Communion, each child's name inscribed on a pictured candle, inviting parishioners to pray. Fr Sean Finegan, the parish priest, spoke at the end of the Mass and invited everyone into the parish hall, where there was the most magnificent spread...the chocolate truffles were so especially delicious that we were invited to take some home with us, and Auntie did so, and they are waiting in the fridge to be enjoyed during the week ahead.

It was all so very beautiful and happy that we lingered, and it was late when Bryan and Jayne finally took me back to their house and over mugs of tea, we finally tackled the History Walks...more info shortly on these, but be assured that there is a full programme for the months ahead, and we're starting a new initiative for London Catholic schools